Cascade

Alexis (Sara Waisglass) has a troubled family life with her volatile father who is the leader of a local biker gang. She and three friends go into a National Park to do some camping. They find a crashed drug plane. A criminal gang is also searching for the crash site.

This is a small thriller. The story is fairly basic. It's a smart teen girl trying to out-fight a group of violent people. When people do some dumb stuff, one can put it down to the circumstance. These people are not thinking everything through. My main issue is the filmmaking. The tension needs to be elevated. The action just needs to be better. The actors are fine. One can argue that Cutter is doing too much, but there is always one such character in these movies.

So this came up on my Netflix recommended page so I started watching. Within minutes I thought "hang on, I think this was filmed in my area". I paused the video and did a search, and sure enough, I wasn't hallucinating, lol. It was filmed in my area. I recognized a local nature trail/park, the steel plant, and some of the streets in the area.

So, the setting is beautiful, and is almost a character in it's own right, and most of the show takes place in the woods. It was beautifully filmed.

Yes, there were the normal "stupid and annoying teens" but there were also two smarter kids to make up for it. The lead was great; she carried the scenes; very charismatic and just good overall.

I enjoyed this.

I liked it. Sure, it's not the best thriller ever and pretty generic (bunch of kids are on the run from some dangerous drugs criminals and have to try to outsmart them), but it's well done, the pace is pleasantly high, the story is solid, there's some serious violence, and the kids all get some background, just interesting enough to make you care for them. And just when things threaten to get repetitive, a second group of criminals joins the story to give it a new impulse.

The acting of especially Sara Waisglass is excellent, she's totally convincing as the intelligent and tenacious girl that's not to be trifled with. But I liked Stephen Kalyn too, he played impetuous, fun-loving Vince just as unpredictable and tiresome as it should be (and he's very cute to boot!).

I also have some tiny reservations as to the logic. Why would the criminals stand so much on catching Alex to lead them to the plane, when they could as easily have used the two kids that they already had captured. And how difficult could it have been to find that place themselves anyhow, the kids stumbled over it within ten minutes in the park!

But for the rest: well done and pretty entertaining.

Great movie ! If you like bikers and bad guys, action and suspense, this is the movie for you. It had a real story, not just a mindless, flashy action flick. It had some interesting twists and turns, that required my full attention. The bad guys were REALLY bad, creepy in fact. Who ever played the female biker Skip, did an amazing job. Josh Cruddas has to be the creepiest bad guy, I've ever seen. Sara Waisglass (Alex) seemed as if she was made to play that role. I don't think anyone could have done a better job. The entire cast was great. The scenery was beautiful and the music, was again better than most of what you ever hear in a movie. Amazon sells the 12 song soundtrack, which I might buy. I DID buy the movie. I know I will watch it again. In fact, I hope they make a sequel.

I will be honest ... I am not really a movie watcher and usually I get bored within the first 20 minutes. However.... I really enjoyed Cascade. It kept me engaged and focused the entire time. Every scene was enjoyable to watch. I think that these young actors did an incredible job and whoever directed it definitely has an eye for this stuff.

The locations in this movie are spectacular. Having grown up in Canada ... seeing this movie was a real treat because it was relatable. I found it to be the perfect pace too... not too fast but not too slow - everything just flowed nicely and kept me wanting to know the end.